Alyssa Marie Bethancourt

Monthly Archives: November 2014

I know I’m a bit of a contrarian. I don’t respond very well to orders. No, that’s not accurate; I respond very not-well to orders. But it’s not just a childish knee-jerk response to being told what to do. Blithely going along under the assumption that someone else always knows better; that there’s no need for you to ask questions because you imagine that someone will ask them if it’s important; trusting that there’s no reason to question authority because how else would it have become the authority unless it was right; thinking that things will be fine if you just let those other, more knowledgeable people take the reins only leads to trouble. At best, stagnation. Personally, societally, globally. I very much question the motives of anyone who expects or advocates for that kind of obedience.

I’m not saying you should never trust anyone ever, but I am saying the first person you have to trust in this world is yourself.

I didn’t know there was an N24 Awareness Day, which goes to show just how unaware we are about this. I’ve never been diagnosed, but my lifelong struggles with sleep point very clearly in the direction of N24, a disorder I had no knowledge of prior to following Unstrange Mind. It’s a relief to know that my struggles have been (and are) real.

“I think that pop culture is a vital arena for feminism. Because pop culture is the media we consume and we are what we eat when it comes to that cultural diet. I think if it’s in the water and the food (so to speak), it’ll grow from there. The stories we tell are the cultural seed-bed.” – Chuck Wendig

“Commentary about fiction is really never about the fiction, fyi, it’s always about the fact that fictions are created and consumed by people and we go out into the world and behave towards other people in ways that are reinforced subtly and not-so-subtly through what gets into our brains. There’s a reason that JK Rowling made sure to include characters of color explicitly in the HP series. There’s a reason why defaults are destructive.” – Kristen McHugh

“Offensive things aren’t offensive merely because they hurt feelings – they’re offensive because they contribute to the societal harm of marginalized groups. The end goal isn’t to get everyone to love each other, it’s to destroy power imbalances.” – Tumblr user queers-in-space

“Look at any major cultural revolution and writers probably started it. I think that’s probably why coups and dictators shoot us first.” – Kristen Lamb